1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to steam dryers and, more particularly, to a steam dryer control method, in which the amount of water supplied to a heater is controlled to adjust an amount of steam.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, dryers such as dryer-compatible washing machines or laundry dryers heat air using a heater and supply the heated air into a drum to dry laundry. The dryers can be classified into an exhaust type dryer and a condensation type dryer according to the way in which moisture generated by drying the laundry is treated.
In the exhaust type dryer, moisture discharged from the drum is exhausted along with supplied air from the dryer, and in the condensation type dryer, air discharged from the drum passes through a condenser to remove moisture from the air so that the air can be circulated in a dry state to the drum.
The condensation type dryer generally includes a drum in which laundry is dried, a filter for separating foreign matter, a heat exchanger (or condenser) for removing moisture from the laundry through heat exchange, a fan for generating a flow of air to facilitate a drying operation, a heater for heating air to reduce time for the drying operation, and a pipe connecting the respective components to one another.
A washing operation generally results in wrinkled laundry and such wrinkles are not completely removed from the laundry by the drying operation. Thus, a steam dryer has been recently developed, which can remove wrinkles from the laundry using steam.
It should be noted that the aforementioned technique is described for understanding the related art of the invention and is not a well-known conventional technique in the art.
A conventional steam dryer controls supply of steam based on humidity. In this case, the humidity is detected after laundry is wetted with steam or when the steam directly collides with a humidity sensor, so that timing of detecting the humidity occurs too soon or too late, thereby retarding a time point for turning-on/off a drum motor. As a result, the laundry becomes excessively damp due to the steam or is insufficiently wetted therewith.
Moreover, retardation in controlling the drum motor resulting from retardation of humidity detection can cause steam exhaust and steam concentration on part of laundry.